Slowing from their standard pace during the key holiday sales period, U.S. footwear imports increased 28.2% to 2 billion pairs year-to-date through November compared to the same period in 2020, according to the Department of Commerce’s (OTEXA) Office of Textiles & Apparel, following revenues of 30% year-over-year for the first 10 months of the year. [Source: Sourcing Journal]
Imports of footwear in USA from the main supplier, China, grew by 30.4% to 1.2 billion pairs in the 11-month period, just above the 29.8% accumulated in the first 10 months of the year, despite ongoing tariffs on the category and demands from industrial groups representing importers to repeal them.
Steve Lamar, president, and CEO of the American Apparel & Footwear Association, in a letter to President Biden on the container shipping crisis, called on the administration to “provide immediate relief” for the high costs incurred by importers “by removing punitive tariff costs, such as the punitive tariffs of U.S. Government Section 301 on China.”
Vietnam, the second-largest footwear supplier in the United States, saw its shipments drop to an 18.4 percent increase since the beginning of the year, to 477.28 million pairs from a 26.8 percent increase in the previous month, as a result of factories closing this summer.
Nike posted minimal revenue gains for the second quarter, citing Covid-related factory closures in Vietnam as a negative impact. Chief Financial Officer Matt Friend said last month that all affected factories have been reopened and that employee attendance rates have improved and that Nike’s reopening in Vietnam is “planned.”
Friend said at the time that the closure of factories in Vietnam led Nike to cancel production of about 130 million units.
China and Vietnam continue to dominate footwear production, combining for 1.68 billion of the 2 billion pairs, or 83.9%, imported in the first 11 months of 2021, compared to a market share of footwear imports of 83.6% in the previous month, according to OTEXA.
OTEXA: “The consumer will pay 7% more than he previously paid. The wholesaler in the middle will have much more difficulty now”.
